I would like to share some words and insights into a very interesting subject. They come from Fr Flor McCarthy SDB in his homily notes for the Eighteenth Sunday of the Year. I found his thoughts quite fascinating. I have experienced examples of what he says but hadn’t made any further connections.
His opening sentence had me intrigued. “After every great moment there comes a moment of reaction” and it is in the reaction that the danger lies. He goes on to explain his comment with some examples.
“Writing about his Auschwitz experience, the Italian writer, Primo Levi, said:
In the majority of cases, the hour of liberation was neither joyful nor light-hearted. Many suicides occurred immediately after the liberation. By contrast, suicides were rare during imprisonment. In my own case release was a critical moment which coincided with a flood of rethinking and depression.”
And Elie Wiesel, another Auschwitz survivor, said:
“During the ordeal, I lived in expectation … of a miracle, or of death. It was only later, after the nightmare was over, that I underwent a crisis, painful and anguished, questioning all my beliefs.”
“In theory, having been released, they should have lived happily ever after. Yet it frequently happened that those who came back died fairly soon after their ‘return to life’. How does one account for this? While they were in limbo it was the dream of being released that gave them the strength to survive. But freedom didn’t always live up to expectations. Some of them had nothing to go back to. ‘the cruelty of prison starts when you come out’ (Oscar Wilde).”
The reason Fr McCarthy was quoting the above was to explain the problems the Israelites were facing when they came out of slavery. They left slavery in joy for a bright future in the land that Yahweh had promised but it wasn’t long before they wished they were back in Egypt. Therefore wishing to be slaves again. In a sense, their real troubles began after their release. Freedom wasn’t what they expected.
We read in the Bible the quarrels and troubles they experienced between each other and Moses. It would take a new generation led by Joshua to take them into the Promised Land. It has been said, ‘It took one day to get the Israelites out of Egypt, but it took forty years to get Egypt out of the Israelites’.
This helps me to understand why they had to wander around the desert for so long and why were they being so ungrateful to God by complaining about their situation. I hadn’t realized that they were not ready psychologically to enter the Promised Land. The forty years allowed a change of thought, acceptance, response to Yahweh and new generations to be born.
I would think that the majority of us would believe that once out of slavery, confinement, prison or any such situation we would be on top of the world …. but that is not the case.
Freedom presents its own challenges. It means taking responsibility for ones life. This is no easy thing especially for those who have got used to others making all the decisions for them. Freedom calls for self-discipline. It’s easier to be disciplined by others than to discipline oneself. It’s easier to turn a man into a slave than a slave into a man. Even the Israelites said, “Maybe we were better off in Egypt; at least we had enough to eat there.”
These thoughts make me ponder the reason why some prisoners reoffend. One theory I had was because ‘outside’ they had no job, no family, no place to live and probably no food. So go back to what you know … prison.
I think now we can add another theory – they cannot cope with the freedom. I remember a prisoner telling me, some years ago, that he would run from his unit down to the dairy because he couldn’t cope with the open space and no walls around him.
Maybe we need a lot more places like Judy Lazarus Centre so prisoners have the protection or some sense of security while going out each day to climatise to the outside world.
When I was in Wodonga, I had a lot of contact with the army people. When some of these left after their twenty year service, they found it difficult. The army did everything for them, they didn’t have to worry and they had the camaraderie and support of others.
The quote from Oscar Wilde is still ringing in my ears. I only wish it could be ringing in the ears of many of our government departments including the Justice System.
“The cruelty of prison starts when you come out”.
Fr Michael Morley
Parish Priest
Sacred Heart Tatura
Word Count: 794
14th September 2018
T:\Tatura Parish\Documents\Fr. Michael\Reflections 2018\The Price of Freedom-Sharings.docx
